Gordon Brown and David Cameron were engaged last night in the first televised debate of the British electoral history, the body to body between Labour and Conservative candidates was limited by the 76 rules governing the appointment, an hour and a half, also attended by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. An audience of two hundred people, who were not allowed to applaud or react with other gestures, made the selected questions.

Cameron started as a favorite because of his ability infront of the cameras, but was particularly tense during most of the program and blew his first chance to achieve a decisive gap in voter support. The latest surveys ahead of the elections on May 6 have been giving to the "Tories" with a lead of between five and seven points over Labour.

Clegg overcame both

For his part, Brown withstood the test well, despite their usual difficulties to be concise and to respond quickly, and even allowed himself to smile and throw a joke full of irony, things that would normally cost. In any case, Clegg beat both in relaxation, realization of policy and strategy, proposed as an attempt to put into the same pot Labour and Conservative and presented the letter of change. Some 51 percent of respondents in the YouGov poll for the newspaper 'The Sun' has led to the winner Clegg. By contrast, 29 percent considered the winner of the debate was Conservative candidate David Cameron and only 19 percent has been estimated that the prime minister and Labour candidate, Gordon Brown, was the winner of the debate.

Another poll, by ComRes for ITV, said that 43 percent of Britons Clegg has been seen the winner of the debate, 26 percent believe that Cameron has been the best stand at the event and 20 percent think Brown has won a victory.

The debate began with a brief description of each candidate. Brown introduced himself as the man needed for this time of crisis. "These are not ordinary times, these are not ordinary elections. We need a government with experience and I know what it is to manage a crisis, "he said. Cameron, "you have to choose between continuing as we say or we can do much better, we need a change." Clegg said the other two to say: "These are two old parties and have done the same things for years, the only alternative to the old politics are the Liberal Democrats."

There then followed questions from the public, to which each candidate had to respond in one minute, and then another minute to respond to every answer the other candidates gave. Addressed issues such as immigration, public safety, education and health. Where there was more controversy was over the control of immigration, in which the 'Tories' raise an annual limit, and the Labor proposal to raise a 1% Social Security contributions, rejected by the conservatives. None provided updates on the proposals already announced in the campaign.

The public representative was chosen with criteria such as age, sex, social and ethnic origin, and in addition 80% had already expressed their intention to vote (seventy democrats, seventy and thirty conservative Liberal-Democrats).

This first debate was a lot of first refusal on the part of candidates for the elections on this new show, and that anyone and British leaders are accustomed to the war of words between them, with power held every week in the House of Commons on what constitutes the nerve of parliamentarism in the UK.

The discussion yesterday in Manchester and featured live on ITV, will continue on Thursday, one in Bristol and broadcast by Sky, the third shall be transmitted from BBC Birmingham. The three formats were criticized by leaders of nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales. These courses will participate in regional discussions organized by the BBC.